Turns out we had no less that three WW2 bombers come through town, and not being one to miss out, I skipped out to lunch early and had a hell of an aftenoon crawling through a B-17, B-24, and a B-25

The amazing thing on all three birds is how absolutely CRAMPED they were. Flying in one of these birds is definately NOT for the claustrophoic! Particularly the B-24, it made the 17 look positivly spacious!

Without further ado, here are the pics I took at the B-17G, Nine O Nine.




You can see the crew hatch in this one. The hatch is rather small, but the area it leads to is right underneath the flight deck, with short tunnel to the nose. VERY confined. About 30 inches of clearance here.







You can see the rear crew hatch here. Door is a whopping 3ft/1m tall. They were letting folks enter in the nose crew door and walk/climb their way through to the rear of the bird and exit via the rear crew hatch.



Neat couple of things here, 1st was that if you look closely at the glass, you can see the etching marking off degrees of deflection in the glass in the gunners window. The second is the gentleman in the picture, who was one of the many WW2 veterans on hand to see the bird. He was former air crew on the B-17. He didnt want to say very much, and the sight of the bomber obviously affected him.






Shot of the left wing as I got in line to climb aboard.


Number 2 engine, right behind the crew door!


Here was the view upon entering and turning left and looking into the nose. Some view! The bombadiers chair is a basic office chair bolted to the floor. The odd looking item in the upper right is the control yoke for the chin turret, top of the picture is the reflector sight for the turret.


Navigators desk. This thing is TINY!


Right cheek gun across from the navigators position.


Pilots position. You can see some modern radio and navigation gear on the console, which is required by the FAA to make the aircraft airworthy.


Copilots seat.


Pretty nice shot of the engine controls. No idea why there is tape on there. I assume to mark engine settings.


Immediately behind the pilots seats/flight deck is this. The dorsal turret station. This sucker is VERY close to the pilots seats and immediately infront of the bomb bay. Very very little room to move up here.


View of the tail standing in the dorsal turret. This was the only spot I could stand up straight in on the aircraft.


Front view from the dorsal turret.


Left wing from the dorsal turret.


Dummy bombs in the bay.


This is the view from the bomb bay looking to the rear of the plane. Sorry for the somewhat blurry picture, but I was standing on the bomb walkway, which is about 4 inches wide, and trying to line up the shot.


This is the view from the radio room to the front of the bird. You can see another guy standing in the turret position. The radio room is SMALL. About 4'x4'. Radio room was the second spot I could stand up in, with the hatch opened.


This is the view from the radio room to the rear of the plane. The ball turret is immediately in the doorway, so it takes some contortions to get around it. I would NOT want to try to get around it while the turret was active.


Great view of the right waist gun. There is very little distance between it and the ball turret.


Shot of the gages at the waist position. Has gages for oxygen pressure and flow, as well as intercom, suit heater and an alarm bell.


Left waist position.


The pictures dont really show how WIDE the view is from the waist position.

Finally, the ball turret.

Inside view showing the back panel releases and the retainting strap. That thing is so freaking small its unreal.


And yours truly in the reflection. The ball turret has about six inches of clearance here. I would NOT want to be stuck in this thing on landing!

WOAW! awesome pictures! thanks so much for sharing! Great angles! makes me wish we had this baby ingame

Can you eventually also post up pics of the b25 and the b24?

I will be posting pics of the B-24 and the B-25 as well.

I didnt get a chance to get as many of those birds, since I was only allowed to stick my head in the crew access and look around, but I still got a couple of good ones.

I wish I had gotten some more pictures of the vets that were there. I really wish I had more time spend out there, some of the vets had some really great stories!

Nice!
If you have more or the radio room do please post 'em.

I always thought that the code of the Nine-O-nine plane made it a perfect mascot for Oleg's Ready Room.

I think I have some from the radio room looking out externally, but to be honest, there wasnt much to see internally. The radio room on the plane had some shells of the old radios bolted in, but the operator station and the rest of the position was empty.

I have had the privlege to see this B-17 at several airshows in the North East US over the years. I had my head, er um, whole body in the bomb bay too. What an increadible airplane.

Thank you for sharing the pictures.

56k be frightened, very frightened

Very nice Ernst, TY

Great pics, truely a beautiful plane....
Thanks for the pics!

very very nice pics!!!

over here in perth australia we have a complete lancaster in the RAAF musuem in bullcreek. |450|Steg and myself got talking to a few of the old guys and they allowed us to have free reign in the lancaster which is normally offlimits. Both of us aint small boys :P And for a plane that size we were amazed at how cramped it is. I want to get back there with my dslr and take some pics for you guys. More cramped than the b17 .

Great pics!

Boy do I hope for a B17-Addon for BoB...

Outstanding

Wow!

Nice photos! thanks!

@+

quote:

Originally posted by Vike:
Wow!

Nice photos! thanks!

@+

Outstanding closeup's. what camera did you use?
I have flown on "909" twice, the "Dragon" once
and the B-25 once.

I found the B-24 to be rather airliner like while the
B-25 was like a fighter. The B-17 was far quicker
than the B-24, but not as fast on acceleration
as the B-25.
B-24 was the quietest.
B-25 was deafening! Wear ear protection for a B-25 ride.
It's reputation is well deserved.
It was like standing next to a top fuel dragster
for 1/2 an hour.

Sergio

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Sergio_101,

Extremely Mint photo's... Thank's for sharing!

The Collings Foundation's B-17G, "Nine-O-Nine", is one of the finest restored B-17's in the world. Short of live ammo, armor plate, and internal mechanisms in the machine guns and modern radios and GPS, she is an exact restoration of a WW II issue B-17G. Judging from the pictures, her restoration is showing its age. I see rusty ammo links and the upper turret plexiglass has a bizzilion stress cracks. She was in much better condition several years ago when I went for a 45 minute ride.

Yeah, if you can swing the money, go for a ride in a WW II aircraft, there's nothing else like it and the day will come when such an experience will not be possible. Look at it as a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Great pics, thanks a ton for posting them!

9-0-9 is a very curious blend of a late airframe with curious early backdates (partly due to component availability). I believe Sentimental Journey is a more accurate representation as it is consistantly restored to a very late standard including reflector sights on the waist guns.

I've got to say, though, that 9-0-9 is one of my favorites.

Enjoyed the pics and the remarks, ty for sharing!